The Cull
by PhoenixFalls
Summary: Tamsin is pretty sure she hates Lauren. During an event that occurs every 20 years, she finally gets her dream assignment but is unfortunately paired with the blonde doctor. Slightly AU, there's no Dark/Light system. Rated M for later chapters. CopDoc focus/endgame with mentions/implications/slight Doccubus, Lauren/OC and Tamsin/OC
1. Chapter 1

"_Rough sex is the manifestation of romance. You trust someone so much that you let them do whatever they want with the one thing that is yours." –Anonymous _

Tamsin is pretty sure she hates Lauren. She's not even sure why, she's just a human. A human that hadn't really ever done anything to her; who had actually helped her on numerous occasions (though grudgingly). The muscles in her hands would twitch as if trying to engage in some involuntary violent action when the shorter blonde was near and the Valkyrie would cross her arms tightly or ball her hands into fists at her side; anything to keep from doing something to the doctor she could be punished for. Lauren was only human, but she was invaluable to the fae. Plus, the brown-eyed doctor looked like she could be broken under the weight of Tamsin's gaze alone, never mind her hands.

The similarities between her and the human infuriate her as much as their differences. She doesn't understand how Lauren seems to have actual friends, fae friends, while being a human immersed in a world she wasn't made for. Tamsin had no one but herself. The days of Valkyries doing anything communally had faded into a distant memory and they'd been flung so far from each other for so long, they all might as well have been alone forever; maybe that's why she hated her. She wanted the doctor to be as alone as she was. More than she was. She antagonized the human any chance she got, and given how often she needed to be patched up and how much she frequented the Dal, the opportunities to make a pest of herself were numerous.

Perhaps the most enraging thing was that Lauren didn't engage her on the levels she attempted to prod her to. Maybe it was some kind of internalization issues from having been slave labor for so long; maybe the doctor was really as kind as she pretended to be. Whatever the case, it pissed Tamsin off to no end. She would lash out with her words, every syllable tipped with poison, and she knew they would have an effect; the other blonde would flinch when one of her sharp statements tore into the soft flesh of an emotionally sensitive spot. Tamsin felt like she should like that expression, she hated Lauren, after all, but it just fuelled the ire in her. She wanted the human to fight back; physically, mentally, she didn't care; she just wanted her to do something other than show the squishy underbelly of subservient fear.

She could see the fire flickering in the depths of expressive chestnut eyes and she was mad Lauren wouldn't just let it out. Tamsin didn't know why it mattered, why she cared what the doctor did, why the human made her so mad. She thought about it a lot though. More than she'd admit, not that she had anyone to admit such a thing to if she wanted. She just knew that she spent entirely too much time flittering from bar to bar, drinking herself stupid and getting pissed off before routing herself to the Dal. She always played it off like she'd ended up there on accident, even to herself, but everything before walking through the nondescript door set into an unimpressive brick wall had just been a build up to scanning the crowd for the other woman. She was pretty sure she hated Lauren.

Tamsin had almost broken her teeth from clenching them together so hard when she found out she and Lauren had been drafted onto a case together. Whatever bête noir was running the Fae Elders Council this month had given the order and it filtered down to the Valkyrie in the form of a brown manila envelope stuffed with plans and dumped unceremoniously on her desk at her human cover as a detective. She futilely tried to picture who was on the Council, who she could demand change from, but it was no use. The membership of the Council was a revolving door of favoritism and nepotism subject to whims and fancies. They probably wouldn't even do anything even if she'd demanded it; she was barely more than a hostage to the whole political system as it was.

She'd known it was coming. The Cull was a vicennial event where small teams of selected hunters and underfae experts were sent out by the Council to hunt down particular underfae. Part of it was to keep their numbers from growing too large and the other part was to harvest organs and materials from them that were useful. You got drafted by being good at what you did, it was like being selected for jury duty except there was no talking your way out of it or pretending you didn't see the notice.

Tamsin understood why she'd been paired with the doctor. The list of needed parts from particular underfae was shorter than the average two person teams culling list but the creatures populating it were more dangerous and elusive and even she could admit that Lauren was better at her job than most fae who had centuries of experience on her. Tamsin had been selected for The Cull more times than she could count. Enough times to know that she hated being paired with inexperienced scientists and before now, they had all been fae. She knew Lauren would have been given an envelope with similar information inside, but the Valkyrie's hand was forced to go speak to the doctor because she had to lay the rules down before they were shuffled off to practically the other side of the country to go gallivanting in the woods hunting dangerous underfae.

Naturally, she was heavily buzzed by the time she was ready to seek Lauren out. She managed to spot her in the Dal soon after entering in the back of the bar at a booth going over what Tamsin presumed were the instructions from her drafting into The Cull. She ordered and swallowed down several shots of liquor at the main bar, maybe trying to replace the burning sensation in her belly with the burning feeling of alcohol. The placid expression on Lauren's face fell away to wariness the second Tamsin slid into the seat across from her and she smirked as her stomach tightened at the doctor's countenance.

"You get the message?" the Valkyrie asked, already knowing the answer as she pulled a flask out from the inside of her jacket pocket.

Lauren nodded cautiously. "How long is this supposed to take?"

"You're gonna be pretty far from your comfort zone," she said, ignoring the question and taking a short draught from her flask. "Anything could happen to you out there," she added vaguely, her voice hard.

Lauren frowned slightly. "The Council would…" she was cut off from reminding Tamsin of the threat that awaited her- should anything suspicious happen to her anyways- when the fae opposite her let out a harsh laugh.

"Please," Tamsin stated, shaking her head. "I'm just saying you have zero experience with The Cull and I'm not going to babysit you twenty-four hours a day to make sure your pretty little face doesn't get mauled by a matapiooyi or worse."

Lauren stiffened. "Is that all you came to tell me?"

Though her voice had strained notes of feigned politeness, Tamsin could see the vexation behind the other woman's eyes in the challenging gaze pointed at her but instead of feeling pleased about it, she felt her stomach roil and scowled at the turbid sensation.

"Just don't fuck this up." She spat back, leaning forward across the table and arching an eyebrow slightly when Lauren didn't lean away from her. "Do what I tell you, when I tell you and stay outta my way. Got it?" She tightened her fingers around the warm metal of the flask when she got that feeling that her hands were going to move of their own accord again.

Lauren leaned back suddenly as if trying to get herself out of striking distance, the action building more heat than light in Tamsin which she quelled by taking another drink; a longer one this time.

Lauren nodded her understanding slightly, almost imperceptibly, and pulled the small silver pendant on her ever present necklace back and forth absentmindedly; but Tamsin felt that she was trying to draw her attention to it, remind her that she was protected under the laws of the Council as if she didn't know. She didn't have time for this passive-aggressive bullshit. She took another drink and brought her hand down on the table hard enough that Lauren startled, a look something akin to enmity flickering across her features before slipping back into cautiousness.

"I got it," Lauren affirmed out loud, the gall never leaving her eyes even though her voice was steady.

Tamsin gave the other blonde a discommoded half-smile and took another drink before replacing the flask back into her jacket. "Five AM tomorrow," she informed, scooting off the booth bench and straightening her jacket.

"Are you going to be sober by then?" Lauren asked acrimoniously, causing Tamsin to whip her gaze to the human whose jaw was clenched, her hands gripping the beer bottle in front of her hard enough that her knuckles were white.

An oddly charmed look was there and gone before the Valkyrie had the chance to process her own reaction and she let out a low humorless chuckle. "S'why they invented seatbelts, doc," she replied coolly before making her way back to the main counter. She ordered a bottle of the strongest liquor they had and didn't take a drink from the ancient looking green glass bottle until Lauren's gaze landed on her.

"Evening, detective." A smooth voice said next to her, interrupting her silent visual battle with Lauren.

Tamsin turned around to face face the bar and turned her head to spy the owner of the voice who had taken purchase on the bar stool next to her. "Rebecca." She greeted with a nod of her head while taking another drink.

The other fae was the closest thing she had to a friend, which wasn't saying much. She was on the short side; her ample curves contradicting the type of strength venatrices were famed for as fae who specialized in the hunt and the woods. She was gorgeous, always responded when Tamsin texted her at three in the morning to come over even when they hadn't spoken in a while and she always left afterwards. Tamsin liked that about her.

"Whose your nerd for The Cull?" the Valkyrie asked, already knowing that Rebecca had been chosen. Like Tamsin, she was _always_ chosen.

The venatrix pushed a mass of unruly sepia curls away from her face with one hand, which was pointless as they all sprung immediately back to their former position and took the shot she'd ordered. "Some harpy from Boston." She sighed out, wrinkling her nose and holding up her empty shot glass to alert the bartender for a refill. "They're so damn temperamental."

Tamsin hummed in agreement but didn't reply and Rebecca's face brightened. "Hey," she said cheerfully. "Since we're talking about it, who'd you piss off on the Council anyways?"

Tamsin seriously considered the question for a moment before realizing that the brunette was referring to some kind of specific event and she had no idea what that was. She grunted a questioning noise while taking another drink from the bottle in her hand.

Rebecca rolled her dark eyes and downed her fresh shot, trying and mostly succeeding in not making a face as the liquid went down. "Word on the street is your nerd is a _human_." She clarified mirthfully.

"Yup." The blonde replied noncommittally, shrugging slightly.

The other woman snorted and plucked the bottle from the Valkyrie's hand and managed to fill her shot glass before Tamsin violently yanked it back with a scowl.

"So what'd you do to piss them off?" Rebecca repeated, bringing the shot glass up as if to drink but jerking her head back and putting the shot down when the fumes hit her nose.

Tamsin's glower deepened and she sucked her teeth loudly. "Nothin." She replied. "We're getting sent to the Glacier-Waterton area. You really think they'd send me there if I was on the shit list?" her lips quirked up slightly when she noticed the jealous look on the face of the venatrix.

"No kidding? And they're sending a _human_ with you?" she scoffed. "They must love you but hate them. Who is it?" Rebecca wracked her brain for a comprehensive list of humans working in the fae medical field. "Oh my god, is it _Marcus_?"

Tamsin laughed and shook her head. "Seriously?" she asked rhetorically. "He wouldn't know his ass from a hole in the ground." Her humored tone died down suddenly and she took another drink. "It's Doctor Lewis." She mumbled, trying to ignore the sudden flip in her stomach by taking another drink.

Rebecca's eyes widened and she finally took her stolen shot, this time failing miserably in her attempt to keep her face neutral. "_Lauren_ Lewis?" she asked in a scandalized tone. Her curls bobbed around as she chuckled and shook her head. "Maybe it's not too late to ask for Marcus, yeah? Lewis seems like she's got more looks than brains, but damn, those are some kinda looks, if you ask me."

Tamsin felt an inexplicable bubble of indignant anger course through her and she let out a loud huff of air through her nose. "Yeah?" she started harshly, the words tumbling out of her mouth before she could stop them or before she could even really think about them. "Well I _didn't_ ask you. You know, if it wasn't for her, that disease in the Congo would have spread and probably would have wiped half of us out before someone else was smart enough to come up with a cure."

"Oh shit, that was _her_?" Rebecca asked, impressed.

Tamsin flexed her hands open and closed, having just realized that they had been balled tightly into fists. "Yup." She frowned at the odd note of pride in her response.

Rebecca hummed and used Tamsin's distraction with her hands to pour herself another shot from the Valkyrie's bottle. "Okay, so you get smart _and_ hot _and_ the best culling area? I change my mind. I don't wanna know who you pissed off on the Council, I wanna know who you're fucking."

The blonde sneered and drank greedily from the bottle before the smaller woman could steal anymore. "Really?" she asked, her voice sharp with disapproval. "I get the _dream_ cull and I'm gonna have to spend it making sure the good doctor's squishy insides stay on the inside."

The venatrix laughed lightly and brought her shot halfway up to her mouth before setting it down again. "You're such a brat." She informed the blonde. "You get the best hunt, beautiful scenery, _gorgeous_ super smart human… I mean, why are you even complaining right now? You tell me with a straight face right now that you're not going to waste the first week in sexual congress with _the good_ doctor."

Tamsin felt her body flush with heat again and grimaced as it settled low in her stomach. "Get fucked, Becca." She shot tersely, finishing the contents of the bottle in her hand.

Rebecca laughed, unfazed and took her shot, coughing slightly while sliding off her chair and pressing her body close to the Valkyrie's. "Is that an offer, detective?" she cooed lowly, pressing a firm hand to the blonde's hip to get her to turn around.

Tamsin smirked, thankful for the change in topic and moved so that she was facing the shorter woman. "S'matter?" she asked, her voice cocky as she put an elbow on the countertop behind her. "Darrel still not doin it for you?"

"Darren." The brunette corrected, biting her lower lip when Tamsin chuckled in a manner that indicated she'd gotten the name of her on again off again boyfriend's name incorrect on purpose. She slid her hand up to the small section of exposed skin between the top of the Valkyrie's pants and the hem of her shirt.

"Whatever." Tamsin replied flippantly. "Like I'm gonna remember his name."

Rebecca grinned and ran her fingers around to the flesh of the blonde's stomach. "I'm not leaving till tomorrow night." She purred, leaning forward to shield any prying eyes from the fact that her fingers were dipping below the waistline of the other woman's tight pants. "Y'wanna get out of here?"

Tamsin pushed away from the counter with a low laugh and roughly tilted the shorter woman's head up by several fingers tucked under her chin. "Is your boring boyfriend there?"

Rebecca smiled dreamily and shrugged. "Does it matter?"

Tamsin tilted her head to one side as if she was thinking about it. "Nah, but _you're_ the one who has to deal with him when he gets left out, not me."

She felt the prickle of eyes on her that didn't have to do with Rebecca's glazed over gaze and peered over the top of the mass of curls to scan the bar. Her eyes immediately latched onto Lauren who was staring at her with a completely unreadable expression on her face. Tamsin's whole body stiffened and she wasn't able to regain control of her faculties until the doctor's gaze was torn away from hers when Lauren took a drink of her beer.

"I gotta go." The Valkyrie mumbled, taking a step back and removing her hand from the venatrix's face.

Rebecca pouted, but removed her hand from halfway down the front of Tamsin's pants. "Go where?" she whined.

Tamsin smirked and stuffed her hands in her pockets and shrugged. "I just remembered I gotta leave at five. I got all kinda shit to do beforehand."

Rebecca nodded her understanding but her face was disappointed. "Can't say I'm happy about it, but you're right. Call me when you get back into town."

"You think you're gonna be done before me or something?"

Rebecca chuckled and put a hand on her hip. "Oh I _know_ I'm gonna be done before you." She shoved Tamsin's shoulder lightly. "Just call me when you get back. God knows the kind of state I'm gonna be in after spending so much time with a harpy in seclusion." She gave a small wave before moving to sit back at the bar. "Good luck, Tam."

"Save it for yourself, Becca." She retorted, moving to leave. Tamsin's eyes focused themselves on the booth Lauren had been occupying without registering the action consciously and she felt her mouth pull into a frown when she noticed the booth was empty. She pulled a hand through her hair and mumbled a harsh "fuck it" to no one and nothing in particular before leaving the Dal to live up to her excuse and prepare for the five AM departure.


	2. Chapter 2

Tamsin pulled up to the front of Lauren's apartment building and stifled a yawn while pulling her cellphone out of her pocket and flicking through her contacts list. Stabbing down on Lauren's name, she stared at the numbers under her name, thumb hovering over the green button to engage the call before sighing loudly- if not a little exaggeratedly- and shaking her head, tapping on the icon that would open a text message instead. She typed a few sentences before deleting them several times, finally sending a simple "I'm out front" with a frown.

She was forty-five minutes early but Tamsin still allowed her impatience to turn to irritation when she didn't receive an immediate response. She chewed absentmindedly at one of her short nails while staring blankly at the parking lot through her windshield, trying to enjoy her last few moments to herself. The dark lot was lit by the dull orange haze of streetlamps and completely devoid of movement save for the topmost branches and leaves on trees dotting little islands of earth between blocks of spaces swaying in a rather hard breeze.

The Valkyrie's attention was pulled to the driver's side window as she registered motion from her peripheral vision. Lauren was struggling to make her way out of her building with all her things in tow. She had a large pack with a sleeping bag tied to the top strapped to her back and duffle bag packed to the point of bursting in one hand. Her other hand was busy trying to simultaneously hold open the main door and pull a dolly through it. Two large, locked, black plastic cases sat on the dolly, an identically shaped but smaller case on top of those. Tamsin watched the doctor struggle for a moment, smirking when the lobby door closed onto the cases and the wheels of the dolly caught on the doorway causing Lauren's shoulder to jerk as she pulled. Did she have to bring her whole goddamn lab?

Scowling, Tamsin got out of her truck, leaving the door open and all but stomping over when Lauren kicked the back of the dolly while tilting her face exasperatedly towards the fat purple clouds overhead. Lauren was frustratedly pushing the dolly back into the building to build momentum to get it over the raised hump of the threshold, one foot propping the door open when Tamsin reached her.

"Just stop for a second." The Valkyrie ordered annoyed as she held the lobby door open so Lauren could maneuver more easily. Lauren nodded slightly and finally pulled the dolly free of the doors, tilting the cart further to wrangle it down the walkway but was stopped by Tamsin's hand on her wrist, deftly holding it steady, pulling her grip off the handle of the cart and replacing it with her own in a quick motion. "Put that in the back with the rest of the shit." She continued while nodding to the pack on the shorter woman's back, yanking Lauren's duffle bag out of her hand on her way past, wrinkling her nose in distaste at the strangled yelp of surprise that the doctor failed to swallow before it half-escaped.

Tamsin was mildly impressed. Despite the heavier items being on a wheeled contraption to lessen their collective weight, everything she'd taken from Lauren was quite heavy and that pack on the human's back was stuffed beyond capacity as well; maybe she wasn't as weak as she looked. Good for her. It increased the likelihood of her coming out of The Cull with her limbs intact and her flesh unmarred. Her stomach fluttered and she frowned deeply, chalking it up to the beer she'd been drinking several hours earlier while packing.

Tamsin fully righted the dolly and dropped the duffle bag next to it, covering her nose for a moment as she stepped up to the back of her truck and into the mostly invisible cloud of exhaust fumes the tailpipe of her idling vehicle was issuing forth. She opened the topper window and unlatched the tailgate, letting it fall violently while she lifted the window high enough to where it would stay up on its own. The bed of the truck already had two large black trunks with a black tactical duffle sandwiched between them; a large pack similar to the one on Lauren's back containing a sleeping bag, tent, and whatever other necessities Tamsin was able to mash into it laying haphazardly on top of one of the cases.

She grabbed the duffle bag and hurled it indelicately into the truck, aiming for the back. It landed with a soft thud on top of her pack and slid down the crack between a black trunk and the wall of the bed. She turned around to focus her attention on the dolly and noticed Lauren frowning at her while taking her pack off, looking like she wanted to say something.

"What?" the Valkyrie demanded sharply, starting to undo the nylon straps kept the three cases from sliding off handcart. She fought the urge to wince at how loud her voice sounded.

"I'll put the cases in." Lauren replied in a tone that brooked no argument, holding her pack out to Tamsin with both hands. "There's a lot of important and expensive equipment in those." She explained when the taller woman just raised her eyebrow and put a hand on her hip. "If anything breaks, I'd rather it be my fault."

Tamsin felt her face distort but couldn't for the life of her tell what kind of expression it was as she wasn't sure what emotion she was feeling. Did this _human_ actually just command_ her_ to do something? Maybe it was the explanation that cushioned the demand, but she was confused as to why her hackles weren't raised at the obstinate tone in the other blonde's voice. She gritted her teeth as a clenching feeling blossomed in her throat and she blinked a few times as if the situation was physically blurry and she could nictitate it into focus.

"Whatever." Tamsin replied harshly, the muscles in her hands twitching as she snatched the pack from Lauren roughly and jettisoned it into the back of the truck along with a huff of air from her mouth. She stepped to the side with an exaggerated sweeping gesture of her arm and watched Lauren go about finishing loosening the straps over the cases.

The doctor made quick work of undoing the straps and took the top case off the stack, setting it on the ground on its side and shedding dull brown jacket she was wearing over a tshirt to give her arms more freedom of movement. Tamsin raised an eyebrow in spite of herself as Lauren leaned down to heft the first of the large black plastic cases. The well defined muscles in her upper arms bulged and strained as she lifted the box with a grunt, lifting one leg to set a corner of the case on her thigh, briefly easing the weight off her arms so she could reposition her hands, lift it higher and slide it across the tailgate, half climbing in after it to angle it into a better position.

The Valkyrie crossed her arms tightly over her chest and shifted her weight to rest heavily on one foot; all of her limbs felt light like they were going to move of their own accord and a knot of pressure appeared suddenly and with painful force in the middle of her chest. This was stupid. While Lauren was messing around with situating those stupid boxes like they were the Ark of the Covenant, they could have been on the road already. She squeezed her eyes shut thinking about the two-hour drive ahead of them, sending up a silent prayer to whoever was listening that she'd be able to make it though this.

When Tamsin opened her eyes again, Lauren was lifting the bottom box, this one obviously heavier than the first if the strain in her arms was any indication. She watched the human huff and struggle to repeat her actions with the previous case, but it appeared to be too heavy for her; she couldn't lift it high enough to get it over the lip of the tailgate. Tamsin watched her fight with the case for a while; the doctor was seemingly making it a point to not look in the Valkyrie's direction so as to avoid any indicatication she needed help.

"Oh for fucks sake." Tamsin breathed under an exasperated sigh, shaking her head and crossing the distance between them. They didn't have time for whatever point Lauren was trying to prove. Not when there were things she could be hunting and killing. She positioned herself next to Lauren and shoved her hands under the case, bumping the doctor with her hip to get her to let go, which she did, quickly taking a step back.

"Fy faen!" The Valkyrie swore in surprise as the full weight was relinquished unceremoniously into her grasp, causing her upper body to jerk downwards. She quickly repositioned her weight to right herself and stop the case from crashing to the ground, humming the air out of her lungs as if that would help her lift it onto the tailgate. Tamsin wrestled it over the lip and hoisted herself in after it, pushing it fully onto the bed. "Where's it going?" she panted irascibly, craning her neck to look over her shoulder at the doctor. She scowled as Lauren just stared at her. Her mouth was open as if she was going to say something but she remained silent. Tamsin felt her face warm, probably from the exertion, she thought, and rubbed a cheek against her shoulder hoping to make it go away, gritting her teeth. "Am I talking to myself, or what?" she couldn't place the stupid expression on the doctor's face and it was twisting her insides.

"Just make sure it's not going to slide around or hit anything." Lauren answered finally after clearing her throat.

Tamsin turned around but didn't acknowledge the statement since she was too busy biting the inside of her cheeks to keep from commenting that the damn thing weighed a tonne and it wasn't going to slide around no matter where she put it. That seemed like an invitation to actual conversation and the idea made the hair on her arms stand up for some reason. She pivoted the case back and forth, following it deeper into the bed of the truck until she had it wedged between the back of the first case and the front of her trunk.

"Tetris the rest in there yourself." Tamsin directed crossly, scooting out of the recesses of the back of the truck and hopping down off the tailgate, returning to her seat behind the wheel without waiting for an answer. She swung her legs into the cab of the vehicle and slammed the door, immediately pulling the ever-present brushed metal flask from inside her jacket, unscrewing the cap. She took an inappreciable swallow, already feeling jittery, warm, and slightly lightheaded for reasons she couldn't fathom. Maybe she should stop buying beer from fae who sweat mescaline. Tamsin shook her head and rubbed the back of her neck roughly, taking a much longer drink in efforts to prove the futility of that thought. Like _that_ was going to happen.

She replaced the flask just as Lauren opened the passenger's side door and slid into the seat. Tamsin held the steering wheel in a vice like grip for a brief moment once the doctor closed the door, suddenly becoming acutely and uncomfortably aware of how small the cab of her truck actually was. She shook her head to free herself of the cottony sensation forming in the depths of her mind and opened her eyes again, peeling out of the parking lot without looking at her passenger. If she could make it to the travel agency without stopping for whatever stupid reasons humans had to pause every thirty minutes during road travel for or guiding the truck straight off an overpass, she'd consider that to be a victory.


	3. Chapter 3

Lauren was only aware she'd fallen asleep because Tamsin swearing loudly at a driver who'd cut her off startled her awake. Her eyes snapped open in alarm but her head remained tilted against the warming glass of her window. She swallowed a yawn, not wanting to draw the Valkyrie's ire towards her and cast her gaze out of the window. She wasn't terribly sure how long she'd been asleep, but long enough that the sun had risen and they'd gotten onto a stretch of highway that suggested they'd been on it for quite a while. She wasn't terribly sure why they weren't using the travel agency that was situated not far from the harbor; it seemed a little odd that they were going wherever it was Tamsin was driving to get to their destination when the local agency was less than a ten minute drive from her apartment.

Lauren had figured out quickly that they certainly weren't driving to the preordained point Tamsin had been given as they seemed to consistently be going North and they would have had to have left probably a full two days earlier in order to reach the vicinity of the Glacier-Waterton area. She was shocked into an upright position as Tamsin swerved the vehicle violently to avoid a large unsecured plastic pail falling off the tailgateless pickup in front of them that had cut them off, sending the white bucket and its oily ragged contents sailing in their direction.

The Valkyrie leaned forward in her seat, almost audibly slamming on the gas pedal and driving onto the shoulder to pass the truck on the right side, thrusting her middle finger against her window and angrily shouting something in Norwegian that Lauren didn't catch as she swiftly guided her truck to cut the vehicle off. She immediately slowed down to well below the speed limit once she was in front and the lines on the road indicated no passing. Tamsin glanced over at her with a frown- almost as if to check to make sure she was still in her seat- but didn't say anything, returning her eyes to the road. Lauren remained upright and willed herself to loosen the death grip she had on the door handle, taking a deep breath to still her heart, which was beating wildly.

"Where are we going?" she finally asked after a prolonged silence, unable to contain her curiosity and wanting desperately to take Tamsin's attention off the mini-battle she was engaging in with the driver behind them who was now following them dangerously close in effort to coerce Tamsin into speeding up.

"Travel agency." Tamsin replied in a manner that suggested she was an idiot for asking such an obvious question.

Lauren almost pressed her hands against her eyes to keep from rolling them but managed to quell both urges and drummed the fingers of her right hand against her thigh several times, searching for a combination of words that wouldn't set the Valkyrie into a tizzy. Talking to Tamsin was like trying to have a conversation with a perpetually cranky toddler. A perpetually cranky toddler with a mouth that could make even the saltiest of sailors seem like high society people, but a cranky toddler nonetheless. She often cycled through an enormous Rolodex of jibes and comebacks during interactions with the Valkyrie but almost entirely left them unsaid.

Lauren was aware, perhaps even more aware than Tamsin herself, that the other blonde's confrontational anger towards her was misplaced and probably didn't have a whole lot to do with her as an individual. After all, she'd never done anything unseemly to her but Tamsin had taken an immediate dislike towards her pretty much the second they'd met several years ago when the fae had been transferred to the area at behest of the Fae Elder's Council. Apparently, her discordant behavior and penchant for bending the rules of the Council to the point of escaping punishment only on technicalities had prompted them to displace her from Vancouver to the physical seat of the assembly basically on the other side of the country in order to keep a tighter leash on her.

Truth be told, Lauren more or less had greater personal freedom than the Valkyrie did despite her slave status and she imagined that generated a lot of anger in the fae woman. Not to mention that judging from how everyone else interacted with Tamsin, she was almost wholly unused to anyone who didn't come at her with anger or sexual intentions and couldn't even seem to respond to indifference normally. Still, despite any good reasons behind it, her shitty attitude bothered Lauren and Tamsin often hit some of the raw spots of things she was sensitive about so sometimes she couldn't resist letting a heated retort slip out though it was better to keep her mouth shut.

Better because she still wasn't sure after the four or so years she'd known the other woman that she wouldn't physically lash out at her for some perceived slight which would be awful for both of them (more for her than the Valkyrie) though she had a weird, almost intuitive feeling, that Tamsin wouldn't purposely hurt her. Better too, because keeping her mouth shut seemed to make Tamsin angrier than anything she'd ever said aloud and it gave Lauren an unnatural almost maladjusted sense of satisfaction that she wielded such obvious power over the other woman's mood.

"There's a Council sanctioned travel agency in Old Town." She tried again, keeping her voice even so as not to display her mild annoyance.

Tamsin sighed. "Aren't you supposed to be some kind of human prodigy when it comes to fae crap?" she queried tersely. "Glacier-Waterton is a protected area outside the Council's full control." She sounded irritated at having to explain what she perceived as obvious but kept talking. "It's in the jurisdiction of the Indigenous fae in the area, we have to use the agency sanctioned by them. They're like, sovereign entities or something." She waved her hand dismissively. "Theoretically, anyways."

"Why don't they cull their own area?" Lauren wondered out loud, not expecting an answer but Tamsin surprised her by giving one albeit not an informative one.

"Hell if I know." She said flatly. She cocked her head to one side as if she were considering giving a more in depth answer. "Ask our guide when we get there, I guess." She added, her voice holding a note of civility that was rare in their interactions.

Lauren nodded, unwilling to chance destroying the nearly amiable turn by adding her voice to the conversation again. She glanced at the side mirror, noticing that Tamsin's stubborn persistence seemed to have won out over the driver in the tailgateless truck as they'd stopped trailing so closely although it could have been because they were in a passing lane again and Tamsin was now going over the speed limit, not giving the other driver a chance to pass again. She briefly thought of stories she'd hear every once in a while about some unstable person getting toyed with in traffic, igniting their road rage and causing them to follow their quarry to their destination and visiting violence upon them once they were out of the vehicle.

She shook her head free of the thought. Even if that _did_ happen, picking a physical fight with Tamsin was almost certainly a case of Mugging The Monster. The driver behind them veered off to take an exit anyway; Tamsin seemed to notice them taking their leave as well since she muttered "good riddance, asshole" under her breath and slowing the vehicle down to the posted limit.

Lauren gnawed at her lower lip, partially to keep from laughing at how upset the Valkyrie was and partially to keep from commenting that Tamsin hadn't exactly been a faultless participant in their little road battle. She sighed internally and wondered idly if she'd remembered to bring her MP3 player. Lauren vaguely recalled putting it on the coffee table to remind herself to bring it, but she'd been so swept up in securing the contents of the equipment cases she might have forgotten it. She was positive she'd forgotten at least one nonessential item and wouldn't be surprised if she'd forgotten several personally essential ones as well.

Lauren hoped she hadn't forgotten it. The battery probably wouldn't last the duration of the trip, but she wanted to have something with her that was capable of drowning out Tamsin's inevitable sourness while she was working. Maybe if she spaced the usage out, she could make it last the trip though she still wasn't sure how long they were going to be there. The doctor had plenty of acquaintances among the fae but very few friends she felt comfortable allowing to hear the nervousness in her voice asking that question caused.

It wasn't just that she was making an extended trip with Tamsin of all people; The Cull was extremely dangerous, even more so for her because she was human and certainly no warrior. It didn't help matters that their culling list contained some of the more volatile underfae to be had and since they were native to the area they were going to be in, they had the potential to be a lot more dangerous.

She had very nearly asked Bo since the succubus was her closest friend, but her ex-girlfriend had been part of the fae world for less than half the time than she had. She also didn't want to worry her as Bo was prone to interfering to the point of making a troublesome nuisance of herself when she felt someone she loved was in danger, so she'd turned to the only other fae she considered family. Dyson had mostly been unhelpful though, only saying it "could take quite a while" and that she should be exceedingly careful. He'd even been worried enough to gift her with a pretty wicked looking combat knife (away from Bo, of course) that was buried in the recesses of her duffle bag.

The wolf shifter had said he'd thought about loaning her his service piece but had decided against it because if she shot any of the underfae on her list, she'd probably just piss it off. Even though there was a smile in his eyes when he said it and he'd chuckled, she still wasn't sure if he had been serious or not and the brief hug filled with the awkwardness of the action being uncommon between them had been welcome but didn't do anything to quell her anxiousness. Lauren definitely didn't want to bring it up to Tamsin since there was no telling what kind of comments she would make, but there was probably a ninety-eight percent chance it would be something disparaging and the thought of being perceived as weak by the Valkyrie didn't sit well with her.

Lauren had lost herself in her thoughts long enough that she hadn't noticed at all when they'd gotten off the highway and into a city. Since she hadn't been paying attention to the exit signs and the names on the street signs didn't register as familiar, she had no idea where they were. Tamsin seemed to know where she was going though since she navigated the streets filled with late morning commuters straggling into work with ease, not even glancing at the folded map shoved under the emergency break.

They pulled into a crowded shopping plaza, miraculously finding a parking space shortly after entering the lot. They got out of the truck, the tail end of Tamsin's affronted mumble about how many people were parked in the lot lost to Lauren once she was outside the vehicle. She stood awkwardly behind the truck as the Valkyrie opened the back and climbed in to dig around the mass of equipment before tossing Lauren's duffle bag and camping pack to within her reach and climbing out with her own bags and shutting the back.

"What about our equipment?" Lauren asked, following the taller woman as she strode towards the sidewalk in front of the line of shops.

Tamsin turned her head to glare at her and rolled her eyes. So much for the previously mellow atmosphere.

"They'll send them." She replied, turning around. "That shit is inanimate. It doesn't have to get approved. It'll all be at the base camp by the time we get there."

Lauren allowed herself to roll her eyes at the baleful tone in the other woman's voice since she couldn't see her and followed her up to the door of a store that had the words "Old Trail Travel" printed on the door along with operational hours. According to the door, the agency didn't open for another fifteen minutes, but when Tamsin pulled on it, it opened easily. A bell chimed overhead to alert anyone inside to their presence, but considering there was no one in the small office except for a pleasant looking round-faced man behind the main counter, announcing their arrival had been unnecessary.

"Ya here for the culling drop off, yeah?" he asked, leaning back in his chair and smiling broadly.

"What if we were just some people off the street?" Tamsin asked, her words dripping with admonition.

The man rolled his deep brown eyes and shrugged. "C'mon, lady." He replied, though his tone was genial and indulgent. "I been doin' this a long time now; how many people you think I got walkin' in here with that kine gear on their back jus' makin' travel plans?" he shook his head and stood up, motioning for them to step up to the counter. "You wan get to where ya goin' or what?"

Tamsin visibly bristled but stepped up to the counter, nodding. Lauren smiled mirthfully behind her, pleased at his agreeable disposition and ability to somehow reprimand Tamsin without causing an argument. The man glanced over at Lauren and returned her smile with a wide one of his own, winking at her.

"Arright then." He continued, placing his hands on the countertop and leaning his weight on them. "Your guide should be there arready, but she didn't respond to my last text so," he lifted his shoulders once. "Who knows. If you don't see her right away, for your own safety, don't go wanderin' off or nothin', kay?"

Lauren nodded attentively and Tamsin snorted; Lauren imagined she probably rolled her eyes as well.

"'Ey, you wanna get all lost, s'yer business." He continued, unfazed. He turned his attention to Lauren, intuitively knowing she needed things explained to her, maybe he sensed she was human. Fae were odd like that. "Got all kine ways to hide trails, yanno? Keeps the undesirables out. You try and mess around near the old trails; you'll be lost for good for sure no matter what kine experience you got." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a half empty pack of gum, holding it out to Lauren who shook her head politely. "G'wan an take the gum, kid." He encouraged, smiling warmly and extending his arm further. "This kine travel can be purdy disorienting and hard on the stomach for people not used to it. Humans especially. The mint'll help with the nausea."

"Thank you." Lauren said sincerely, invading Tamsin's personal space to lean past her to take the gum with a nod of her head and slipping the pack into her front pocket, noting the slight flush on the Valkyrie's face and a scowl forming on her features. Once she was safely out of Tamsin's line of vision, she gave into the urge to lift her gaze to the ceiling in a half roll, trying to draw strength from the plain white surface.

"Ya ready?" he asked, seemly directing the question to Lauren who seriously considered saying she wasn't before nodding firmly. "Good luck. I genuinely hope you'llal come back okay with all your parts in place."

Tamsin put a hand on her hip and Lauren could read her body language as annoyed even from behind her but if she was going to say anything to him, it was lost as he sent them on their way. It was almost a nonexistent sensation to Lauren. It was like the whole world just shimmered away before fading into a new location like in a movie. One second she'd been standing in the dusky red and muted yellow of the travel agency with the smell of coffee in the air and the next, she just wasn't.

They were in a small clearing, surrounded by tall pines and aspen thick around them though the few patches of beargrass dotting the ground around their feet suggested that a meadow or some kind of water source was relatively close by. The rich smell of earth and forest invaded Lauren's senses and normally, the doctor normally loved the smell but the fae at the travel agency had been right about the ensuing queasiness and she leaned forward with her chin tucked into her chest to ease the sick feeling.

Once the initial wave of nausea ebbed enough to where she didn't feel like she was going to revisit the ghost of the oatmeal she'd eaten much earlier that morning, she straightened up and put one of the sticks of gum in her mouth, the cool flavor so strong, she could feel it in her nasal cavity. She turned her attention to Tamsin who had her head tilted up to the sky, looking a little green around the gills herself. Lauren held out the pack of gum and waved it slightly to catch the Valkyrie's attention.

Tamsin sucked her teeth loudly and frowned, shoving Lauren's hand lightly to the side and swallowing thickly. "Great." She started rancorously and scanning the area around them and finding no one else. "We better not have to wait all damn day for this guide."

Lauren nodded though she wasn't particularly paying attention but followed suit when Tamsin dropped her tactical bag and divested herself of her camping pack. Lauren took the opportunity to kneel down next to her duffle bag and unzip it to check for her music player. She dug gingerly past the clothes, trying not to spill them on the ground next to her and glanced over when she felt the burning sensation of eyes on her. Tamsin was sitting in front of her pack, leaning back on her elbows, clearly ready to wait for their guide despite her previous comment. She grimaced and looked away when Lauren met her gaze and Lauren breathed loudly out of her nose to keep from laughing at the expression as the Valkyrie looked like she had been on the verge of sticking her tongue out. Cranky toddler indeed.

Her fingers hit the hard sheath of the six-inch blade Dyson had given her and she pulled it up to set it on the top of her clothes for easier access at a later date. Rummaging through her bag which mostly consisted of clumsily groping between articles of clothing, she noticed Tamsin rising from her spot on the ground quickly, her whole body tensing as she listened to something.

"Someone's coming." She informed moving swiftly past her, presumably towards the sound.

Lauren closed her eyes and strained to hear whatever Tamsin was hearing. She registered the loud whisper of aspen leaves shivering in the cool breeze, a cacophony of various species of birds, including the distant drilling of a woodpecker and she thought she even briefly heard the sharp stuttering trill of an eagle, but she didn't hear anyone coming. She knew better than to question Tamsin's senses though and mashed the displaced clothing back into her bag, struggling to zip it back up.

Lauren's untrained ears finally picked up the purposeful snapping of twigs and disturbing of litter on the forest floor that indicated someone who didn't care if they were heard was approaching. Managing to finally close her bag with several violent yanks, she stood and turned her attention to the approaching noise. Her ears picked up the sound of melodic whistling as the footsteps got closer, recognizing the strains of "I Can See Clearly Now" before the figure emerged from the edge of the tree line.

The owner of the whistle and the footsteps was several inches taller than Tamsin but wasn't lanky. She looked strong but where Lauren was used to associating strength with angles and definition, this woman was all softness. Her thick sepia colored hair was pulled into a careless ponytail at the nape of her neck and her dark downturned eyes crinkled at the edges when she smiled broadly at Lauren as she stepped fully into the clearing, stuffing her hands into the front pocket of her jeans.

"Hope you weren't waitin' too long." The woman started, her gaze flickering to Tamsin as if just registering the Valkyrie was there. She clucked her tongue in disapproval and shook her head. "Yáóo." She groaned but her upset sounded playful. "Howsit been, Omahksipi'kssii?"

"Will you _stop_ calling me that?" Tamsin hissed out, completely unamused but it only made the woman grin.

"Tsss." She replied dismissively. "You know, all kinda folks would kill for an Indian name." She pointed out through a laugh. Turning to Lauren, she gave the blonde doctor a wink causing a smile to touch the human's lips. "Means 'turkey,' yanno. Ain't got a word for 'Valkyrie' in Blackfoot, naturally. S'closest thing in my opinon."

"So speak English." Tamsin muttered, glaring hotly at Lauren who couldn't contain the chuckle bubbling within her.

"Aw," the woman drawled, her tone teasing. "Don't be mad, Pi'kssii. You still ain't forgave me bout what happened in Cut Bank?" she rolled her eyes. "That was like sixty-three years ago, akii." The smile on her face grew impossibly wider when Tamsin growled. "You shoulda known better than to gamble with me. I _did_ warn you. Twice. S'not my fault you lost everything."

"Go to hell, Night Emissions…and it was _fifty_ years ago."

"Rude." The woman scolded, but she was still smiling. "Pi'kssii is bein shitty bout my name," she explained to Lauren, stepping towards the doctor so Tamsin was left in her periphery and got the hint that she wasn't going to give the other fae her attention anymore. "Name's Emma Comes At Night, but you know, not _that_ kind of come." She winked again and Lauren decided just then that she liked this woman. She shook the hand Emma held out to her. "What d'they call you, akii?" she briefly graced Tamsin with her attention again. "Itsowaakiiyiwa." She said to the Valkyrie in a light voice. Lauren didn't understand any language even remotely close to Blackfoot, but whatever Emma had said made Tamsin scowl and mumble a surly "keep it in your pants."

"Lauren Lewis." She responded brightly, unable to help but be infected by the tall woman's bright attitude and absolutely overjoyed at being exposed to such a cheerful person, especially when compared to Tamsin's dour attitude.

"Oh shit!" Emma crowed in a thoroughly impressed tone. "Are you the Doctor Lewis who cured that nasty business in the Congo like seven or ten years ago?"

Lauren smiled, slightly embarrassed at the attention but nodded. "It was nine years ago." She informed, noticing a ring of dark honeyed hazel around Emma's pupils now that the taller woman was closer. "I'm surprised you'd heard about that." She admitted.

Emma waved a hand at the air next to her as if swatting something away. "I'm terrible with time. Can't conceptualize it worth a damn." She said apologetically. "An' don't be so modest, akii! You're pretty famous for a human, that was a big deal what you done. Those uppity delegates the Council is always sending over love to talk about all the shit you've done for us, you know. You're the only human worth talking about."

Lauren blushed deeply, completely unused to praise from fae or even simple acknowledgement of the things she'd done except from Bo and very rarely, Dyson. It was embarrassingly appealing to know that upper echelons of fae were praising her, even if it wasn't to her face.

"We gonna stand here having social hour, ooooor?" Tamsin piped up sourly, circling her hands around each other in effort to both move the conversation along and move the trio physically along.

"You ain't got no kinda sense for social mores." Emma informed the Valkyrie, casting her gaze back at Lauren and somehow managing to point at the doctor's duffle bag with her lips. "Z'at your bag?" she picked it up when Lauren nodded and also picked up her rather heavy pack with the other hand, handing it to her. "Might as well get a move on fore _Tamsin_ tears a muscle trying to engage in a real conversation." She grinned at Tamsin's pointed look down at her tactical bag. "What do I look like, a pack mule?" she snapped playfully, toeing it closer to the Valkyrie as an indication that she definitely wasn't going to pick it up.

"Should I answer that?" Tamsin shot back while securing her camping pack on her back and glowering when Emma cackled. The taller fae always seemed pretty much impossible to affect in any way she didn't preapprove of.

"Psh. You act like I don't know you know I'm gorgeous." The other fae said in a singsong, ignoring the black look Tamsin was giving her that could and had rendered lesser people into incoherent stammering idiots.

She trudged a few feet behind Emma and her new best friend, the tall woman swinging the duffle bag in her hand idly and eagerly engaging the doctor in animated conversation. The instant camaraderie between the two and Emma's immediate attentive attitude towards Lauren made her stomach hurt. She'd called Lauren pretty, which was generally an innocuous phrase, but she'd done it in her own language meaning she didn't want Lauren to be privy to the sentiment. Knowing Emma, that implied she'd meant it quite earnestly and probably intended on acting on it seriously. The Blackfoot woman was flirtatious with pretty much everyone by nature but that simple statement made the space behind her eyes hurt. Emma was being stupid. Lauren was human. She hoped the hidden trail to the camp wasn't terribly far, she was probably going to end up jamming her own knives into her ears if she had to deal with that kind of unceasing bubbliness and flirtation for more than a day.


	4. Chapter 4

Lauren placed one boot clad foot over a thick felled branch and yanked up hard on one end, the resulting crack as the wood splintered seemed harsher than it really was as it resounded around her and momentarily interrupted the natural symphony of the forest. It was almost six o'clock, which was still well before twilight in mid-July, and Tamsin had grumbled profusely about pressing on while there was still daylight but Emma insisted seemingly completely unaffected by the Valkyrie's foul mood; the drab olive colored camping pack that greeted them when they reached the small clearing indicated that she'd planned on stopping here regardless of the hour. Emma had volunteered Tamsin to go with her to hunt down their dinner shortly after they'd unburdened themselves of their packs so as not to delve into the rations the other women had brought with them and Lauren had set about making herself useful by wandering back and forth from camp collecting firewood, careful to heed the Blackfoot fae's gentle but very serious warning that she stay close to where they had set up camp.

She wondered where exactly they were in the forest, if they were close to any patrol routes set up by the parks' rangers. Lauren wasn't even sure which side of the border they were on though hunting in either park was a serious crime. She didn't know much about hunting but was fairly certain they were off-season but they happened to be doing this culling business during peak tourism times and it was plausible that ranger patrol would be heavy. Given that they'd not seen any evidence of human activity in the nearly ten hours they'd been traipsing through the thick timber and Emma seemed blithely unconcerned about the possibility of running into anyone, Lauren wasn't terribly worried about it.

"Need some help?"

The sudden introduction of a voice right next to her startled Lauren mightily and the small collection of fatwood spilled out of her arms as she jumped and put a hand to her chest, shouting Hilde Levi's name sharply. Emma laughed warmly and put a hand on the doctor's shoulder, squeezing briefly before bending over to collect the fallen kindling.

"I forget to be loud sometimes." The fae started apologetically, handing the dry wood to her. "Didn't mean to scare ya, Matsiakii."

Lauren had no idea what Emma had just called her, but it was said with a genuine fondness so she decided she didn't mind, whatever it was. "It's okay." She replied, setting about collecting more wood. "I should have been paying attention. That was really careless of me." She frowned, wondering if they were in the right boundaries of territories of the underfae they'd come to hunt and shuddered at the thought of being caught off guard by one of them.

"Nah," Emma said, assuaging her concern easily. "Sometimes I just don't make noise. If I'dda not said anything, you wouldn'ta known I was here… Not unless I was right on toppa you, anyways." She grinned and winked and Lauren felt blood warm in her face in spite of herself.

Lauren cleared her throat and bent to pick up a stick. It was small, not really any good for a fire, but it gave her a reason to turn her attention away from the fae. She'd been trying since she'd met the other woman to puzzle out what manner of fae she was. It was mildly rude to ask someone what they were when it was irrelevant and some fae bristled at the question in much the same way some humans refused to give their age. She shrugged to herself and decided to leave the question alone for the time being.

"Are we in Waterton or Glacier?" she asked instead, giving voice to her earlier thought.

Emma shifted the collection of kindling she had picked up and jerked her head to one side to indicate they could get back to camp. "Settlers love their borders." She said with amusement. "Z'it matter what side of the Medicine Line you're on?" Emma turned to her with a wide grin. "S'all Niitsitapi territory out this way, innit? Arbitrary lines on paper don't carry no kinda weight with me anyhow."

Lauren smiled and nodded in agreement. It was just a political border, after all, it didn't even mean much in the fae world. "Why weren't you chosen for The Cull?" she asked as they ambled into camp. She felt a flicker of gratitude that Tamsin was nowhere to be seen. The Valkyrie had done nothing all day but give her and the other fae black looks while mumbling incoherently and though she'd been hiking behind them, Lauren wouldn't be surprised if there were physical marks on her back left from the glower she could feel from the other blonde.

"You seem like you would be." She continued, dumping the wood on top of where Emma had set hers and watching the fae arrange the kindling just so. "They wouldn't even let you be a guide if you weren't capable."

Emma snorted as if she'd heard something funny but didn't look up from her task. "_They_ don't get to tell me to do anything." She clarified. "Maybe they been here for two hundred years, maybe more, but we were still here first. My house, my rules. We don't really mess around with Council business. Especially not The Cull. We got innaihtsookakihtsimaanistsi." She tilted her head to one side and hummed thoughtfully, looking for a better turn of phrase. "Not a good word for it in English. Umm, peace-laws…'treaties,' I guess. We got arrangements what been in place long before the Elder's Council was even thought of at any rate."

Lauren nodded. "Would you rather culling didn't happen here at all?" she asked curiously. Most fae she'd encountered had an ambivalent attitude towards underfae on the best of days unless they had some useful purpose to them but she'd noticed over the years that fae indigenous to their populated area had a much more respectful, even positive attitude towards the underfae they shared ancestral lands with.

Emma stood up and brushed dirt off her backside, striding over to where the olive rucksack sat and picked up a dull orange game bag made of micromesh and a small metal pot with a secured lid on it that lay next to it. "Don't really matter what I'd rather." She replied, her voice neutral and light but her smile was rueful. "Hadda make treaties with the Council too, eventually." She set the items in her hands down in front of the bundle of sticks and moved off to haul over some thick branches at the edge of the clearing.

Lauren helped the fae situate the branches over top of the kindling so she'd have some place to hang her pot over the flames. She wasn't sure what to say or if she should say anything. She wanted to apologize, but what good would that do? It's not as if she could leave and even if she could, the Council would send someone else. Someone less suitable, maybe, but someone else would be sent nevertheless.

"You been out this way before, Matsiakii?" Emma asked, taking the burden of finding something to say away from her and sounding eager to change the subject.

Lauren shook her head, moving with the other woman to collect some of the dried leaves in the litter around the clearing. "I wish I had," she replied honestly. "It's beautiful out here."

Emma grinned as if she'd been personally complimented and dropped ungracefully down in front of the unlit campfire to strategically stuff leaves into crevices and rearrange the steepled pile of kindling. "You'll haf'ta come back when you're not working. I wouldn't mind showin' you around." She offered, leaning back while nodding; seemingly satisfied with her work and looked over at Lauren with a sly smile. "I gotta old Blackfoot trick for lightin' fires." She said mirthfully. "Over a century old; real useful too. Wanna see?"

Lauren nodded curiously which crouching down, expecting her to produce some kind of flint and knife combination or maybe some ability specific to her type of fae. But when Emma shifted her weight onto one palm and raised her hips for easier access to her pockets, she produced a lighter from jeans and held it up with a gesture that implied a 'ta-da' causing Lauren to laugh and shake her head.

They sat in companionable silence, watching the yellow flames eat at the dried leaves before catching onto the collected wood. Emma placed her lidded pot directly into the pile of wood and though Lauren could hear liquid sloshing around inside of it, didn't ask what was in it. The doctor crossed her legs in front of her and leaned her elbows on her knees, watching the fae woman pull the contents of the game bag out. She half wondered how long she'd been collecting wood and half how quick Emma was at hunting as she hung the already skinned and cleaned hare by a thick black string to the intersecting branches over the fire.

"How long do these culls usually take?" Lauren asked after briefly scanning the area for Tamsin and seeing no sign of her. Should they be worried?

Emma shrugged and crossed her own legs. "Well, it'll be another three days before we get to the culling site." She smiled at Lauren's shocked blink and nudged the pot further into the flames with a thick stick plucked from the edge of the burning pile. "It's not that far actually; technically we can make it in two days, but the protocol of the treaties say we gotta take four. Plus, no offense Matsiakii, but you still smell too much like a human. Makes some of the underfae nervous which can make your job harder. Or a lot more dangerous." She reached out and tucked a strand of blonde hair behind Lauren's ear. "Tryin' ta make sure you got ample opportunity to get out in one piece is kinda what I'm doing here sides just getting you from point A to point B."

Lauren nodded and pulled her knees up, buring her nose behind her arm to hide from the little bit of smoke and mask her hard swallow. Emma's playful smile was making her feel flustered. She could tell when she was being hit on, she wasn't totally dense, but it seemed like trekking through unknown (to her) territory on The Cull was probably the least sane time to have a move made on her. Though another three days spent near the tall woman wasn't even in the same neighborhood as unpleasant as far as ideas went. "So what happened between you and Tamsin, anyway?" she asked after clearing her throat in what she hoped wasn't an obvious manner.

Emma shrugged, a pleased grin on her face. "Oh, jeeze." She started, lifting the corner of her pot with a bare hand to check the warming contents. "Just a simple game between friends. We was over here perfecting gambling songs while her people were still trying to figure out how boats worked." She snorted. "S'not my fault she can't cash the cheques she writes with her big mouth."

"You cheated." The Valkyrie's surly tone cut in as she tromped into their little camp, swinging a crudely made fishing pole from one hand which judging from the couple of trout jouncing along the line, had served its purpose.

"Tsss." Emma replied, shaking her head, "I _never_ cheat." She leaned sideways so she was closer to Lauren and addressed the doctor. "In the ninety somethin' years I known her, she ain't never won against me. Not in anything."

"Cause you cheat." Tamsin insisted, sitting on the opposite side of the campfire and preparing her fish.

"You bite your tongue or I'll do it for you." Emma threatened playfully causing Tamsin to snort and roll her eyes, mumbling something about mangy coyotes and lopping off the heads of her trout with unnecessary force.

"Tama'saakaa" Emma hummed out in the same manner people mockingly said "poor baby" while shaking her head.

Tamsin scowled and dipped her hand in a large wide lipped canteen of water, flicking its conents over the fire and onto the taller faes head. "You leave your pity for someone who deserves it."

Emma giggled and rotated the pot sitting in the flames, taking the Valkyries now headless and gutless fish, which were passed to her, and plopping them into the pot. "Oh but I do, Pi'kssii. You deserve all the sad songs I can think of." She clucked her tongue and whistled a few bars of a doleful tune Lauren never heard of but caused Tamsin's scowl to deepen. "Not such a good idea, though." She said, stopping herself mid whistle and leaning towards Lauren again. "We're not too close to where they hang out outchere just yet, but st'aoo and other ksissta'pssi are attracted to whistling. Specially around dusk." She tilted her head up to the wide crack in the canopy. "We're about an hour away from that, but better safe than sorry, hey? Don't want them running up into camp while you're sleepin. Nasty way to wake up."

Lauren nodded gamely. She'd never seen either of those categories of underfae, but judging from what she's read on her formal work forms given to her at the fae lab, she didn't really want to unless they were dead anyways. She listened to Emma and Tamsin converse with each other; pleased at the way Tamsin seemed very nearly playful sometimes, her horrible attitude only creeping in once in a while when conversation didn't run the way she wanted it to. Cranky toddler, she reminded herself laughing internally. Despite the two fae having hadn't seen each other fro quite some time, Emma seemed to openly agree with Lauren's unspoken assessment of Tamsin's personality and she was relentless in her teasing but personable enough, and probably pretty enough, that Tamsin didn't cause a scene.

Lauren was a little shocked when Emma fished one of the trout out of the pot with one of the skewers she'd been making and handed it to her. She'd politely declined of course, she didn't want to owe Tamsin anything right off the bat, but Emma laughed slightly and explained she had _treaties_ with the 'Water People' as well and she didn't eat anything that lived in or around the water unless she was starving and Tamsin was aware of that. She'd glanced over at the Valkyrie for confirmation, it wasn't that she didn't believe the tall woman next to her it just seemed like something so out of nature for Tamsin she had to have visual confirmation, but the Valkyrie was grimacing darkly and tipping the contents of her flask down her throat.

Tamsin stayed at the campfire long enough to watch Lauren curiously as she at some of the trout and huck a couple half burnt out chunks of wood at Emma before slipping off into her small tent, somehow seeming to slam the zippered flap behind her.

"She ain't as mucha bitch as she wants everyone to think." Emma said thoughtfully, her voice lowered after a prolonged silence.

Lauren started at the closed grey tent the other blonde was occupying and shrugged. "Could have fooled me."

Emma snorted and shook her head. "She don't look it, but she's scared." She said solemnly. "More'n most people, I imagine. Tries so hard to cover that up, it comes out all sideways and fucked up, yanno?" she leaned her weight back on her hands and bumped her left knee against Lauren's right. "She don't even know when she's scared half the time, she just think she's mad allatime. Don't let her freak you out, Matsiakii, yeah?"

"So, I've been trying to ask," Lauren started, watching Emma produce rolling papers and a little pouch from her pockets. "But I didn't want to be rude."

"But now's a good time to be rude?" she retorted, ever playful as she sprinkled pinches of handmade tobacco mixture over the white square and rolled it up. Her tongue lodged in her cheek with the concentration of rolling the paper up tightly and she shrugged. "S'aiight, I'm not shy about nothing. Least of all not answering questions I don't feel like." She licked the length of the little cigarette briefly to get the paper to stick to itself, waiting for Lauren to continue under a slightly lidded gaze and the blonde shivered slightly, immediately deciding it was due to the drop in temperature and not the half tousled look on the other woman's face.

"What kind of fae are you? I've been trying to figure it out and I just can't put my finger on it?"

Emma laughed and puffed at her cigarette, holding a twig with an ember against it until it was lit. Instead of the thick sickly smoke Lauren normally associated with tobacco, a pleasant almost berry smelling blue tendril emanated from the end. "Oh, is that all?" she rolled her neck on her shoulders and sat up a little straighter. "English is a garbage language, you know." She said instead. "Got so many words for things and no feelings bout em. Out here, we're called api'si, but then again, so are coyotes. Just depends on your context, mostly."

"You're a trickster fae?" Lauren asked, head sliding to one side as her thoughts clicked together. "Like the Loki?"

Emma laughed and waved a dismissive hand through the smoke. "Loki are just glorified Borrowers. You ever read those books, _The Borrowers_?" she grinned when Lauren laughed. "We got a purpose. Loki just cause trouble and got fickle moral compasses."

"So what's your purpose then?" Lauren teased back. She shivered again when Emma licked her lower lip.

"Causin trouble."


	5. Chapter 5

Tamsin sighed internally and shifted around, kicking her feet back and forth while trying to get comfortable. She hadn't bothered unrolling her sleeping bag all the way and was mostly using the whole thing as a pillow. She had also neglected to clear the ground underneath her tent when they'd set up camp earlier because she'd been pissed off that they were stopping for the day and various little rocks and twigs were digging sharply into her shoulder and side. She reached blindly behind her and grabbed her jacket, fishing her near empty flask out of the inside pocket and flipping over onto her back to make drinking easier.

The blonde nursed the thick honey mead carefully, already day dreaming about when they'd get to the culling site and the rest of her stuff would be there. Nestled among various weapons and traps in one of her trunks was another flask filled to the brim with clear, very high proof, cluricaun liquor. It was for emergencies, really- cleaning wounds and maybe fuel- but she was already anticipating the damn thing being bone dry by the time she got a hold of even the first underfae on the list.

It was getting cold out but she could still hear Emma and Lauren's low conversational cadence above the sound of kindling crackling in the fire. She would have second guessed Rebecca's suggestion that she ask for a new expert if she'd known Emma was going to be their guide. The trickster fae had literally no scruples that Tamsin knew of. She was like a child. If she saw something or someone she liked, she went after it doggedly until it was hers and they had work to do. They didn't have time for her to dick around the woods macking on the doctor when they had a schedule to keep. Admittedly, the schedule was loose in its available interpretations at best, but they still had one and Tamsin didn't fancy watching the two of them dance around each other any longer than was absolutely necessary. Which wasn't at all, if she thought about it.

There was a possibility that they had to stop, that it had been part of the plan whether or not Lauren had been part of the culling team. She did, after all, still smell like a human. Tamsin wrinkled her nose in distaste. Lauren smelled faintly of copper and the light, almost buttery scent of lactic acid, like all humans did, but there was something else too; something that set off sparks in the primitive part of her brain that she didn't understand, but it irritated her. Whatever it was, maybe they had to wait until she didn't stink of mortality before they got to where they were going. Who knew how long _that_ was going to take. She'd been around fae constantly for years and she still smelled human; more or less anyways.

Tamsin huffed air out of her mouth loudly and tossed the now empty flask off to the side and rolled back over onto her left shoulder, pulling her jacket over top of her as a makeshift blanket. She scowled as she heart Emma break into sudden loud laughter with Lauren's quieter voice trying to shush her. This wasn't a social visit, they had work to do, didn't anyone appreciate that? She knew Emma didn't; the other fae didn't care for the Council doing anything on her ancestral lands at all but at least Lauren should be able to be counted on for knowing when business was business.

Tamsin closed her eyes as an odd wave of not quite dizziness washed through her from the top of her head down. Probably finishing off that flask was a bad idea, considering where she'd gotten it. But the Valkyrie was never that full of brilliant ideas and the added oomph of the mescaline laced sweat contaminating the drink would be enough to get her to sleep without sticking her head back out of the tent to yell at the other two women. She fell asleep with a frown on her face and the sounds of laughter in her ears.

Tamsin groaned herself awake but not because of the sun. The space beyond her eyes was pitch black, even the fire had died down and the only thing she could hear besides the nighttime noises of the surrounding forest which seemed a million miles away was her own heavy breathing mingled with someone else's. There was the weight of a person straddling her stomach and she could feel the soft rake of teeth down the side of her neck, ending their short trail in a hard nip, which was immediately soothed with a warm tongue.

Realizing she must be dreaming, Tamsin gripped the shoulders above her, intuitively finding them in the dark and attempted to flip over the person on top of her with little success. Growling half lucidly, she pulled the wrists of the hands that were raking fingernails down her side and pinned them behind the other person to make sure they knew who was in charge. She was. She was _always_ in charge, no exceptions. The build of the unseeable person above her suggested female and the throaty chuckle at having their arms pinned behind them confirmed that.

Tamsin sat up and pushed her face through the mass of silken hair at the other woman's neck, repeating the action that had been done to her but rougher to get her point across. She heard the longing whimper she'd been fishing for but was totally unprepared for the hips in her lap to rock forward forcefully, throwing off the Valkyrie's balance and causing heat to pool at the bottom of her stomach. The woman tisked her tongue in mock disapproval and wrenched easily out of the grasp Tamsin had her wrists in. The fae swallowed a lust filled groan in her throat when strong hands gripped her shoulders and slammed her back down onto her back, able to do nothing but grip the hips above her lap tightly as she was kissed roughly, her bottom lip bit none too gently.

Tamsin groaned again, half in sexual frustration and half in annoyance at herself for willingly letting herself get topped like this and wrapped her arms around the narrow torso above her, flipping them over and sliding a thigh between the open legs beneath her while pinning the woman's wrists above her head. She started a violent libertine pace with her own hips, grinning at the sounds of quickening breath and they'd not even taken their clothes off yet. The libidinous, almost melodic groan of her name set every one of her nerves on fire and exploded in her core but when she finally recognized the voice, it was like being doused in artic water. She squinted in the dark to make out the features below her and though it was still difficult to see, she would recognize that jawline anywhere.

"What the fuck?" Tamsin growled on finally registering Lauren's face.

Lauren's hair was disheveled and her lips swollen, if it weren't so dark she'd probably be able to see that her face was red as well. The blonde doctor laughed, unconcerned and slipped out of Tamsin's grasp on her wrists now that she wasn't paying attention and kissed her soundly. "Aren't you tired of lying to yourself?" the doctor asked, trailing kisses down her jaw. "I'm tired, you must be exhausted. Don't you think that…"

But the words were lost as Tamsin lost her lucidity and was plunked unceremoniously into wakefulness, the bright sun streaming through the top of the tent and onto her eyes, the grey nylon material doing nothing to dim the light on her face. The Valkyrie squinted up at the roof of the tent for a few moments, her heart still pounding heavily in her chest and everything below her waist was tingling.

"Fuck." She voiced, her tone hard but confused. What the fuck was up with that? It was that fucking alcohol. For sure she wasn't buying liquor from fae that sweat mescaline anymore. This was their fault somehow and they'd have to be dealt with accordingly when she got back. Frowning sourly, she tried to shake the ghost of feeling of hands and lips on her and collected a small bag with her toiletries, she cautiously unzipped her tent and noted that either everyone else was still asleep or they'd already gone down to the nearby river to wash.

Stealing her way towards the small river, she was relived when no one else was there to greet her and commenced to washing quickly. This was ridiculous; it was just a dream. Just a stupid dream that didn't mean anything. It _couldn't_ mean anything. She scrubbed hard at her fact, the freezing glacier water doing much to calm her nerves. By the time she was done with her bird bath, she'd gotten back to normal, more or less, and strode back into camp where Emma and Lauren were breaking down the tents.

"Sleep okay, Pi'kssi?" Emma asked while folding a tent rod in half.

"Go to hell." Tamsin muttered in response the stupid smile on the other fae's face meant she knew something was up but how could she? She caught the package of jerky Emma lobbed at her with a laugh and pulled a piece out, sticking it in her mouth and starting to quickly break down her own tent which wasn't difficult seeing as how she'd haphazardly put it up the night before. She was shoving her tent into her rucksack and glanced over at Lauren who was talking to Emma and folding up the doctor's tent.

Tamsin's eyes slipped closed on their own accord when her brain suddenly flashed to the doctors core grinding against her leg and she nearly chocked, spitting on the ground near her feet before breathing became an issue. Oh someone was definitely going to pay for this when she got back. There's no way her brain would go those places of its own volition, someone was messing with her. Probably trying to throw her off her game for The Cull. Maybe hoping she wouldn't get her list done or something would happen to her while they were out here. She gritted her teeth and shook her head, determined not to let anything interfere with getting the culling list done and done fast.

She hooked her rucksack to her back and picked up her duffle back, shifting her weight while waiting for her companions to gather their things and followed them deeper into the woods. She stayed close enough to eavesdrop on their conversation, but far enough away where if one of them tripped, she wouldn't be responsible for helping them up.

"So what's even all on your list anyways?" Emma was asking Lauren.

Lauren fished a piece of paper from her front pocket and handed it to the Blackfoot woman who looked it over and whistled lowly. "That's some kine list, Matsiakii. You know anything about these?"

Lauren shrugged and shook her head. "Just what's written on the paper really."

Emma threw a surprised glance behind her to catch Tamsin's gaze and earning a scowl in return. "You ain't tell her nothing, Omahkpi'kssi?"

"Just to stay out of my way." Tamsin replied defensively. It's not like she'd ever culled out here before either, how did she know what the doctor needed to know? Wasn't that her whole point for _being_ there in the first place?

"Tsss," Emma replied, shaking her head and turning around again. She handed the paper back to Lauren and cleared her throat. "Well, like I said the other night, sta'ao and kissta'pssi are attracted to whistling mostly at twilight and after dark. If you hear something whistling, don't do it back, yeah? Kissta'pssi ain't got much useful on them, save the claws when you come across one what has em and leave the sta'ao alone. They're smaller, but they like to cause most trouble. Making people sick and possession and whatnot.

"Matapiooyi," she continued. "Can change shape but once you get the body, keep the quills and the bile. You got something titanium to keep the bile in?"

Lauren nodded. "Everything they said to bring on the paper, I brought."

"Good. It'll eat through damn near everything else so make sure you don't get it on you and if you do, wash up right away. You got omahksoyisksiksina on there too, I seen."

"Big Water Snake, right?" Lauren asked tentatively.

Emma laughed and nudged Lauren's arm gently. "Hey, you remember from our little language lesson last night. Doesn't seems so bad in English but they're big horned suckers. Hang out around rivers and lakes so be careful. You're gonna want to save the hearts of those, they're good for divinitation or summnat." She patted herself down and pulled a small pouch from one of her pockets and handed it over to Lauren.

"What's this?" the blonde asked, not opening the bag but putting it into her pocket anyways.

"A couple alula feathers from a ksiistsikomiip'kissiiwa. Them snakes are natural enemies with thunderbirds, they hate each other. The feathers should keep you safe enough but if one is coming at you toss one out and it'll high tail it the other way guaranteed."

Lauren smiled her thanks but frowned briefly. "What about Tamsin?"

Emma looked over her shoulder again to find Tamsin cocking her head to one side in confusion and she chuckled. "Well she's gotta hunt the damn things, wouldn't do well to scare them off, hey?" the dark haired fae pointed out. Now all you got left on that list is the aisinokoap which is easy, they look like little dinosaurs and you'll know right away what to keep on those things. Maka'pato'si on the other hand, are a bit harder since they're not corporeal so I hope you got something to catch em with, I can't really help you there."

"She got a chemical spray for em." Tamsin replied, forgetting she was supposed to be pertending not to be part of the conversation. "Works on poltergeists, specters, and ghosts, can't see why it wouldn't work on these things too."

"How did you know about that?" Lauren asked, confusing evident in her voice.

Tamsin shrugged, suddenly embarrassed. "You wrote a paper like six months ago about it. I _do_ read you know." She scowled at Emma when the tall fae laughed heartily.

"Wonders never cease, aye, Matsiakii?" she laughed harder when Tamsin kicked a rock in her direction and it bounced harmlessly off her calf muscle. "Ol' Pi'kssi is fulla surprises she don't tell no one." She added vaguely. "Not even herself."


End file.
